Believe it or not, Dragon Masters are the most popular of the Castle factions for the CC Roleplayers. How do I come to this conclusion, you ask?

Well, in a fit of consummate boredom (short though it was), I visited the Roleplay Page (which I do think really ought to be moved to the main page, link-wise), and I decided to read up on all out characters. Pretty quickly, I was counting out how many characters each faction had (assigning them to the faction that they were listed under, regardless of what the posts might have made apparent/unapparent).

Now, the total number of characters listed was 73. Now, while I am aware that a character or two has been added to the Planning Thread, but has not been included on the members page, this has been taken into account, for I visited the current Planning Thread to complete my census; hopefully I got everyone. This includes every character, living, dead, stagnant, frozen, you name it.

Unsurprisingly, the greatest "faction" category was 'none', which I shall rename Rogue/None, since that kind of explains it better. Fully 35 out 73 characters were given no faction. (I included everyone who was not conclusively given a faction as a Rogue/None, as well as everyone listed as a 'Pirate'. Subtract the Pirates and you get 32 Rogues/None.) Is this abundance of faction-less characters indicative of a lack of patriotism in our generation?

I was somewhat surprised at the abundance of Dragon Masters. They had eight registered charaters, the only official faction to break five. True, fully half of them were Green Knight's characters, but even without those four, they would have been the second place faction.

As it was, second place fell to the Black Knights, with five characters. The BLACK KNIGHTS! If I had had to think about it, I would have assumed that NO ONE had written about them, since I couldn't recall a single post dealing with them.

Third Place would probably have been the domain of the Bull Knights, had I seen Lovana under anyone's name. (I didn't check last month's Planning Thread, so I suppose she could be there.....) As it was, with three registered characters, the Bulls had to share third place with the Dark Forest, Forestmen, KK1, Crusaders, and Black Falcons. Still, not bad for a faction not even registered on the map. And I woud say that all the credit rightfully goes to Brian and Barbod.

After these factions, the Wolfpack and Ninja come next, with two members registered each (although since one, Kendo, whom I just registered, is listed as Ninja/Pirates, that might be ONE for Ninja, and FOUR for Pirates.)

KK2, Fright Knights, and Classic Legoland each had one. While I am unsurprised at the lack of interest in KK2 and Fright Knights, I AM surprised about Classic Legoland, who's only member, Thenais, is the recent creation of Green Knight.

And I am also amazed that, alone of all the factions, the Royal Knights haven't a single registered character. I tell you, its disgraceful! I may well have to have Sir Dractor go there just to remedy that! (J/K! Although I AM surprised.)

Anyways, I just thought that some of you might be interested to know this stuff. I certainly found it interesting. And Nate, I didn't put this in Planning because it really doesn't bear on the future of the Roleplay at all. If I was mistaken, just crosspost and lock please.

Yes! YES! My favorite has the most and my brothers has the least. This has got to be my lucky day. Even though I don't particapate in the Roleplay, I still think it is a bit weird. Weird and great that is.

Honestly it wasn't my plan to have four Dragon Masters. What can I say, they grow on ya.

Certainly fun. The Sorceror-king and his DMs are much more fun than Sir Dractor and his Crusaders. So guess which I'm writing about more.....

Barbapple wrote:It's such an honor....just to be nominated...I have so many people to thank. Barbod of course, and...

You're welcome! Of course, I think everyone will agree with me. I mean, had you not invented Barbod, the only Bulls in Roleplay would be KK1 mercenaries or something....

Robin Hood wrote:Yes! YES! My favorite has the most and my brothers has the least. This has got to be my lucky day. Even though I don't particapate in the Roleplay, I still think it is a bit weird. Weird and great that is.

A long, long time ago (over ten months! ), I tallied up the Roleplay characters, to get some basic stats about our factions. I have now done it again, and below I present a comparison with last August, and an indication of the changes.

In counting the characters this time, I have counted NONE of the dead characters, and none of the characters that ought to be dead* I have also not counted any charactes belonging to deleted members.

All other registered characters have been counted. Of course, this is an imprecise system, since many characters are never registered, many have imprecise faction designations, and more than a few are inactive/stagnant. However, that is just how things go...

No Faction: 40 (formerly 32) Considering the immense popularity of No Faction characters in former times, this is a massive slowdown. Most of the formerly registered characters are still in there, and some should perhaps more properly be registered under a specific faction, such as Elwen. Even so, this category, at 40, totally wipes out all comers, and has had a healthy net growth of 8 characters (25% its former total), and is likely poised to grow further in the near future.

Dragon Masters: 16 (formerly 8) Would you believe it, those Dragon Masters are STILL on top! And not only are they the top dogs, they've grown by 100% of their former tally. Due in a large part to Lord Void and "his" plot to escape MNPC-dom, the Dragon Masters are nonetheless a very healthy faction, and one likely to remain popular in the Roleplay for quite some time, regardless of the popularity of the actual sets.

Classic Legoland: 12 (formerly 1) If you thought those Dragon Masters were growing, take a look at the Classics! True they might not have the numbers of the DMs, but the difference is by 4 characters and not 7 now, and they have grown from tied for last place to second. They've increased by 1100%!!! While I bear a part of the blame for that fact, with three Cavaliers, I'm obviously not the only one in love with the Classic era.

Forestmen: 12*** (formerly 4) Although their growth hasn't been quite so fast in the past ten months as the Classics, they are tied with them for second place, and remain quite healthy. A growth of 200% is nothing to complain about, and it is clear that the Forestmen remain popular!

Black Falcons: 8 (formerly 3)**** Considering the Black Falcon civil war/political intrigues plot, its amazing that this robustly popular faction isn't more popular than it is. A pitfall of this system, which cannot/does not count unregistered characters. All the same, a very impressive showing, and a growth of 167%

Black Knights: 8 (formerly 5) Tied with BloodVaine era Arch-Rivals for fourth place, the Black Knights have not had quite so impressive growth in the past few months, but considering that the Black Knights are still a very undefined nation, it is perhaps amazing that they have this many registered with them anyway, and with a 60% growth over the past months. As a favourite faction of AFOLs, and a faction as-yet undeveloped, I predict more growth from the Black Knights in the time to come.

Crusaders: 7 (formerly 3)**** Much like the Black Knights, the Crusaders, for all their popularity, are a rather generic nation. Still, with a growth of 133%, they easily outdid the Black Knights, and the same prediction concerning their future applies.

Fright Knights: 7 (formerly 1) Formerly tied with the Classics in last place, the Fright Knights haven't shown quite as impressive of growth, but they have still done quite well for themselves. In the last few months especially, between the Roleplaying of myself, TheOrk, and now Nathan, we are seeing a good deal of growth in this faction, and if I had to pick any one faction to REALLY expand in the coming times, this is it. With a growth of 600%, I think I'm not too far off-base with that prediction.

Knight's Kingdom (2): 7 (formerly 1) With a former count of 1 and a current count of 7, the Eastern Knights' Kingdom has shown exactly the same growth as the Fright Knights, and has also shown several signs of even more expansion to come in the near future. It even has it's own shameless promoter: Sir Kohran. What I am to the Classics, or Nathan is to the Dragon Masters, he is to the KK2.

Ninja: 7 (formerly 1)** Although the Ninjas have seen the same growth as the KK2 or Fright Knights, they remain a very shadowy, unknown faction. Most likely this can be traced to the fact that it is (so far) a euro-centric crowd writing, and perhaps unwilling to trod too heavily on Asian grounds. However, another 600% growth spurt suggests no lack of interest, and with their faction relatively unknown, more growth predictions here would seem to be in order.

Bull Knights: 5 (formerly 3) The Bull Knights were once tied for third place, a remarkable achievement for a faction that wasn't even originally here! Although they have dropped in the placings a fair bit, this is due to explosive growth in other factions, not due to any stagnancy of their own. At 67% growth, they are still a healthy and viable nation, although they are certainly less active than they once were. I predict that unless something unexpected kicks in, with the return of the Bulls to their rightful domains, we are going to see very little, or no, new growth from this faction. Here's to hoping otherwise!

Dark Forest: 5 (formerly 3) The Dark Forest have seen the same stats as the Bulls over the past year, but more optimism would seem to be merited concerning their future growth. With three new characters registered in the past couple months (yay! me and TheBohrok!), this faction looks to do well for itself in the upcoming times. Although not a Fright Knight or KK2, I would say to expect this faction to grow in its role, not shrink.

Knight's Kingdom (1): 5 (formerly 3) Another faction corresponding to the Bulls and Dark Forest. Unlike those factions, the KK1 is a very un-solidified faction, possibly the least-known in Dametreos. Because of this potential, growth is possible, but a general lack of interest prohibits me from predicting anything but more of the same in the near future.

Wolfpack: 5 (formerly 2) Another kingdom currently sitting at 5, the Wolfpack have seen greater growth with a 150% increase since last year. They remain a hightly popular faction, if somewhat slowed down, with Willem and Graygon still living on infamously in the world of autoing, long after their creators have fallen by the wayside. While growth here would seem unlikely, the idea of them fading completely seems impossible.

Pirates: 4 (formerly 4) Nil growth here**. Even the three characters registered are the same. Hopefully, once the Vikings come out, we'll see some growth here- unless they merit their own category!

Royal Knights: 4 (formerly 0) Those poor Royal Knights, still near the bottom of the barrel. However, having gone from 0 to 4 is not bad, and is a greater growth spurt in terms of numbers, than the Bulls, Dark Forest, KK1, or Wolfpack have seen. All the same, the Royal Knights are not one of the great, popular nations. Pity, as they're still my favourite "real" faction, even if I've done nothing in their Roleplay dimension.

Shadow Knights: 4 (formerly 0) While their stats are the same as the Royal Kngihts, the Shadow Knight story is far more impressive. Currently, the Shadow Knight have their own plot going, their own champion posting (Dragoman), and quite a bit of interest to judge by the recent Shadow Knight Discussion thread. Another likely big expander for the coming year.

EDIT: In total, we now have 152 registered, non-dead, non-deleted characters. This is about twice as many as last August, although the fact that we have many more inactive characters now than then sort of skews the numbers somewhat...

*Martin Humboldt, Kjeld, and Sir Weigraf are not yet listed as dead, but they ARE dead, and are thus not counted.

**Whereas last time I counted Kendo as either a Ninja or a Pirate, I have here definitively listed him as a Pirate.

*** Aaylah Jerlock, registered as a Dark Forest/Forestman is counted here as a Forestman (sic) because of the registry of Fraun Jerlock.

****Lemon_Squeezer2's character Otto is registered as a Crusader/Black Falcon. Because he is said to reside in Crusader territory, I have listed him there.

Last edited by Formendacil on Tue Jun 21, 2005 2:24 am, edited 1 time in total.

I'm not surprised the Dragon Masters are still on top. With the dragons and the wizards ect... They should be on or close to the top in an RP.
I can understand why no faction is on the very top. It's much easier to wander around without any ties to a faction weighing you down.
As for Legoland I'm not surprised. Half my chars are classics and they are the greatest kingdom in all of Dametreos.
Even if Sir Weigraf was alive, I don't think he should have been counted because he was being controlled by Pythos. Meaning he wasn't technically a Classic anymore.

For everyone else, I'm not really surprised. My long, long term idea for acouple living chars would involve a Black Knight char or two and maybe a kk1er.

With school winding down and only a few tests to do for the most part, I have temporarily got a bit more time on my hands- a state that will last until early August. Meanwhile, I can do fun stuff like this...

TheOrk wrote:Wow! Thats an immpresive job you've done there.

I'm not surprised the Dragon Masters are still on top. With the dragons and the wizards ect... They should be on or close to the top in an RP.I can understand why no faction is on the very top. It's much easier to wander around without any ties to a faction weighing you down.As for Legoland I'm not surprised. Half my chars are classics and they are the greatest kingdom in all of Dametreos. Even if Sir Weigraf was alive, I don't think he should have been counted because he was being controlled by Pythos. Meaning he wasn't technically a Classic anymore.

Well, a lot of those characters are "mis-classified", in my opinion. But since a basic census is about numbers, I just counted things as they were registered.

Had I gone with another system, a lot of those "no-factions" would be classified. For example, Reno and Shainya would be Forestmen, considering that they are settled there now. Kale would be a Bull because he has a Bull emblem, and is referred to as a Bull. And so on, and so forth.

Similarly, I would reorganise a bunch of the people. Gerald Vos and Trevelayn would be Dark Foresters, not Black Knights.

But it's difficult to track things like that, and the point of this wasn't for me to arbitrarily decide where I would put people. It was numbers, plain and simple.

TheOrk wrote:For everyone else, I'm not really surprised. My long, long term idea for a couple living chars would involve a Black Knight char or two and maybe a kk1er.

Keep up the good work

I hope to see that. I'd like to do more with the Royals myself, and I know I'll be doing more with the Fright Knights and Classics, since my Vaekadaer plot will be centred there.

Oh, so many ideas, so little time...

Last edited by Formendacil on Tue Jun 21, 2005 6:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

Formendacil wrote:Dragon Masters: 16 (formerly 8) Would you believe it, those Dragon Masters are STILL on top! And not only are they the top dogs, they've grown by 100% of their former tally. Due in a large part to Lord Void and "his" plot to escape MNPC-dom, the Dragon Masters are nonetheless a very healthy faction, and one likely to remain popular in the Roleplay for quite some time, regardless of the popularity of the actual sets.

This proves it without a doubt, Dragon Masters are simply wicked cool.

This is why I think DMs are so popular: their diversity. Though usually stereotyped, no DM registered character has been remotely the same (and some are completey different from one another). I mean, check out the list: